Session 16 Recap – Old Debts, Old Doors

After fifteen years and a broken piano, Emberwood Village finally gave the party a morning with nobody pounding on their door. It didn't stay quiet for long — old debts have a way of calling in their notice all at once, and by the end of the day the party had split three ways chasing them: a farmhouse full of true believers, a dinner table full of fading nobility, and a debt collector with a pitch nobody saw coming.

A Quiet Morning in Emberwood

For once, nobody was knocking at dawn. The horses were stabled, the party was home, and the morning belonged to nobody but themselves. Drakzen spent his in quiet prayer, the still-unreturned Camp Dawn horses sitting on his conscience. Six turned over another restless night, the contamination still sitting in him. Rustar felt his training finally taking hold, even if the Flame in him stayed cool. Tough Luck woke well before sunrise with Brahm Osgood's name in his teeth, and no intention of letting it go.

Twenty Gold on Two Rounds

Tough Luck wanted a piece of "Old Rattlecan" himself at the Bark & Buzzard. Rustar had other ideas, tracking down Pluto Jackson instead and putting twenty gold on him to finish it inside three rounds. Pluto obliged in two, gold changing hands before most of the party had finished breakfast.

Hendrix Farm and an Open Door

Most of the party made their way to Hendrix Farm, the Falling Fire's staging ground inside Emberwood itself, where Nathaniel Flint met them before they'd even reached the gate — word of the Black Ivory Inn had beaten them there. He asked, gently, whether they'd seen any sign of a Falling Fire pilgrim who'd gone missing on that stretch of road; when they had nothing to offer him, he let it go without pressing. What followed was less a pitch than a testimony — Nathaniel talking plainly about what the Sacrament had done for him, immunity to the Haze chief among it, careful never to oversell it as more than his own experience. He left Hendrix Farm's door open, no obligation attached, and mentioned a standing offer to escort future pilgrimages out toward Champion's Gate, should the party ever want the work.

A Luncheon at the Red Lion

While the rest of the party settled into Emberwood, Augustine kept his standing invitation from Kosta Stavros, dining at the Red Lion Hotel among what's left of Drakkenheim's old nobility — Lady Miriam Thorne, still dressed for a court that no longer exists; Julian Marrow, sharper-eyed than his age suggests; and a thoroughly drunk Baron Corvin Ashby. Stavros, as ever, was more interested in stories than answers, offering coin for anything salvaged from the Ivory Inn and a standing wager that Augustine would find something he wasn't looking for before he found what he was.

Blackjack Mel's Patience Runs Out

Elsewhere, Six finally went to settle things with Blackjack Mel — the Yoren job, still technically unresolved between them. Mel didn't push the old business hard. He had something new to offer instead: word had reached him about the Ivory Inn, and his employer wanted to hear about it in person. More than that, he had a pitch. If Six wanted to go in deeper, wanted to be seen, Buckledown Row was the door people didn't hand you — it was the one you kicked down loud enough to be noticed.

Closing the Day

Downtime rounded out the day: the party traded bones, dust, and a hundred gold to Aldor the Immense for a freshly crafted Familiar Figurine, and Six picked up two uncommon animus containers of his own, laying in supply for whatever came next. Whatever that would be, it already had a name. Mel was waiting on an answer, and Buckledown Row wasn't the kind of place that improved with patience.